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Benny's Video



Benny's Video (1992)
Director: Michael Haneke
Writer: Michael Haneke
Cast: Arno Frisch, Angela Winkler, Ulrich Mühe
Genre: Crime, Drama

"A 14-year-old video enthusiast is so caught up in film fantasy that he can no longer relate to the real world, to such an extent that he commits murder and records an on-camera confession for his parents."


Benny's Video is a film about a family of super dumb asses. OK maybe Benny is suppose to be a sociopath or perhaps autistic or something. I mean he has no emotions and verily can communicate. That aspect of him would have been worthy of film study. But instead the director fills his film with lots of filler shots that don't add a damn thing to the story but felt like padding (singing scenes, shots of the photos done by mom, random shots of the city) all felt like left over film footage and gave the film an overall cheap feeling.

I get it that some of the scenes are poorer video quality because they represent what Benny has been filming. But the director uses too much of non-story telling shots and we really get very little insight into Benny...except he's from a family of really stupid people.

I couldn't believe how stupid the parents act in the one scene where they discuss how they will send Benny out of town, while the dad gets rid of the girl's body. What was so poorly done in this scene is how the actress who plays the mom kept smirking right before she would talk. It was horrible, it looked like she was on the verge of laughing all the time...The parents reaction was all so unbelievable that it took me out of the movie. And I did like the movie from the point where Benny meets the girl to the point where his parents find out what he's done... But after they witness the video tape of the killing, it becomes less interesting, which is odd as I would have expected the emotions to ramp up more after the dilemma comes to a head.

Not a fan of the pig killing at all. Shock film making=Schmuck film making. I don't know if the pig was killed directly for the film, if so the director should go to jail. If the pig was already to be killed for food and was just filmed as it was done, OK not unethical, but still shock film making is done in lieu of deeper film making skills.